The Unicorn Media Room Asset Management System

We know there are plenty of places you can go to place a video online. The thing is, there are plenty of companies who need to do a whole lot more than just post one or two videos. What if you have hundreds of videos- maybe even thousands? What if they need to go to multiple destinations like iphones, ipads, websites, Roku boxes, etc., in a variety of different players, at different times, in different countries, with different ads? What if you were in charge of not only delivering that content but also analyzing it to ensure that people were watching- that ads were being consumed and that you were actually monetizing that content? Would you know how to do all that? We do.

We’ve taken the last few months to build an incredibly robust API that is unlike any online video management system on the market. It has never been so easy to integrate tools into your existing system, merge with other partners or manage your video assets all in one place. Only need analytics? Great, that’s all you pay for. Looking for player customization and syndication but happy with your asset management system? That’s fine, just utilize our player and syndication tools. I don’t mean to make it sound simple, but it really is. Pick and choose the applications that make sense for your business.

Getting what you want is easy. Manage multiple accounts or business units under one Unicorn Media account. View analytics in real-time, make changes on the fly- touch every IP-enabled device on the market and manage your assets in a streamlined interface that will truly change the way you do business.

It’s time you checked out what Unicorn Media has to offer. http://www.unicornmedia.com

Is it really necessary to have more than one OVP account just to manage multiple users across an organization?  With Unicorn Media, the answer is emphatically no- well, I guess unless you just wanted to do things the old-fashioned way….  Now you can manage all your media assets and properties- however widespread within one Unicorn Media account. Our Rights Management system is so sophisticated, you can manage everything under one umbrella – including assigning different access rights to multiple people within your organization. Let’s say you want to allow your CEO to see real-time reports on every media item, give your interns access to only upload your content, your tech guys the ability to ingest, transcode and assign metadata, your ad guys access to set ad breaks and view analytics- etc, etc, etc..  The point is, you can do any or all of that -and then some – within a single Unicorn Media publishing account. The possibilities are truly endless, giving you total and complete control over your video assets and how they are managed. It might sound too good to be true, but we’ve got it- and we think you’re really going to like what you see!

EC Suite has chosen UMedia Analytics as a value-add for their customers http://www.unicornmedia.com/ecsuite.htm. Why? Because there’s nowhere else in the online video market where a content publisher can see EXACTLY who is watching their videos, how they are watching and where they are watching in real-time. Okay, okay, that sounds like a lot of marketing BS, but think of it this way…. Let’s say you have some ad content in a video clip. You do the usual- buying and placing your ads and then putting that video out in the wild, with no way to see exactly how it’s performing. Well, what if you could log into a website, select a few different search criteria depending on what you want to see at that moment (since your choices are limitless) and within seconds find out anything you want to know.

For instance, let’s say you have ten videos- or ten thousand, really doesn’t matter…. you’ve got a few minutes between meetings to see how those videos are performing, so you click a few buttons just to see which are getting played the most.

Choose from multiple report and graph views like the Magic Frisbee (pictured far right)

The Magic Frisbee (as we like to call it) pops up and you notice that one of your videos is costing you quite a bit in streaming delivery cost, but it’s making you the least in ad revenue. Of course you’d want to know why, wouldn’t you?  So you click a few more buttons and within a few seconds a new report shows you that that particular video is getting played a ton in Europe, which explains the lack of revenue because you have no European ad content. Now you have a few choices….. you might want to change out the ad content or geofence that video so it doesn’t play in Europe. And because you’re using Unicorn Media- you can make those changes on-the-fly, allowing you to increase revenue and/or save money- it’s really as simple as that.

I didn’t even mention the fact that UMedia Analytics allows you to track your content across multiple platforms. Want to see how well your video content is doing on mobile devices? Set-top boxes? Game consoles? Not a problem. Or hey, you could just keep doing things the traditional way, spending a few hours or days collecting CDN logs and tracking hits to your web pages, but is that really working for you?

http://www.unicornmedia.com

Finding effective ways to monetize online video has been a thorn in the side of most video publishers.  There are, of course, several ways touted as effective monetization strategies: pre, mid, and post-roll advertisements, subscriptions, and pay-per-view models – each with its own advantages and pitfalls.

Whatever model an organization chooses to utilize, how can it ensure that its monetization strategy sits well within the borders of profit?  As an industry we discuss again and again how, why, and if online video can be monetized.  (I won’t get into those discussions now; that’s for another post.)  But how often do we talk about profitability? Or how organizations can drive profit using online video?

For smaller companies who may be using online video or marketing or brand awareness purposes, covering delivery costs using a monetization strategy, or off-setting those costs with increased sales, might be enough.  But for larger video publishing organizations, online video may soon become a part of their lifeline.  Profitability, especially for these organizations, is vital.

In the current ecosystem, it’s difficult for these organizations to effectively discern whether or not their online video is really making them any money. Throw in the large amount of time and resources it takes to analyze their online video initiatives, and media publishers find themselves between a rock and a hard place: continue initiatives with very little valuable or outdated analysis or throw more time and money out the door.

In an effort to help solve this problem for media companies – of all sizes – Unicorn Media now offers its real-time analytics as a stand-alone offer.  Our ground-breaking UMedia Analytics™ is now available for any platform.  Now any content owner has the ability to gain valuable insight into the performance of their online media assets and make changes that affect their business – on-the-fly – driving profitability within the organization.

In an announcement made this morning, Colin Dion of The Diffusion Group, stated:

“One of the barriers to content monetization and optimization is not the availability of analytic data; it’s the application of that data in real time. Tools such as Unicorn Media’s real-time analytics allow content providers to know instantly what’s working and what’s not – taking the guess-work out of content delivery.”

By giving content owners the ability to create search criteria on-the-fly, drill down on a specific piece of content, then use that information to change ad content or set new business rules across multiple platforms, Unicorn Media helps move media publishers from guess work to action.  By empowering organizations with actionable information, UMedia Analytics™ truly helps content providers and media publishers move from monetization to profitability.

View the full release here.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been discussing what makes Unicorn Media’s Media-as-a-Service™ solution unique from all the rest of the online video platforms in the market.  While my discussions here are certainly not exhaustive, we’ve covered a lot of ground, and I wanted to take a minute to boil it down.

I’ve mentioned before that Unicorn Media isn’t just a player with some snazzy features attached.  We’ve really set out to build a whole new way of looking at the online video ecosystem.

But what does that really mean for our clients and partners?

It means that we deliver more than just video.  We deliver profits.

Unicorn Media cuts costs two ways: by providing actionable information to our customers and by improving their operational efficiencies.  Our analytics technology gives our clients the ability to make intelligent business decisions on the spot, in real-time.  Our syndication model simplifies processes and significantly reduces deployment times.  Our transcoding technology allows for high quality viewing at a lower bitrate, and our pricing model only charges our customers for what they’re actually using (no hefty licensing fees here).

We’ve said before that Unicorn Media does OVP the way we think OVP should be done.  So you can certainly call us that if you’d like..but you won’t find another OVP that scales to the needs of your business-like we do, or allows for real business intelligence-like we do, or one that significantly cuts video delivery costs-like we do.

So call us an OVP if you’d like, but expect something different…because at Unicorn Media, we’re in the business of delivering more than just video.

Live streaming has quickly become a staple within the Internet ecosystem. While video on-demand is a necessity for most media publishers these days, there’s also something about our voyeuristic tendencies that draws us all into what’s happening now. The idea of bringing live content into our proverbial living rooms is the new norm.  Who hasn’t taken at least a glimpse of the adorable pups on the Ustream Puppy Cam?

(I know I was asking for it by linking to live puppies in my post. Go ahead…watch the puppies. I’ll wait…)

Puppies aside, the Unicorn team has put in countless hours to bring our clients and partners the best Live Streaming solution out there.  After all, our Media-as-a-Service™ solution wouldn’t be complete without it.

The Unicorn Media solution allows our clients to choose from any Flash streaming or progressive protocol, optimizing stream delivery through profiles that allow the player to adjust according to viewers’ unique network and hardware resources.

Bottom line?  Our technology provides maximum flexibility.  We empower clients to make decisions based on price and performance for each individual template, easily delivering an optimal video experience based on available bandwidth and system performance.  Our clients and their viewers get a crystal clear picture that doesn’t break the bank.

The cherry on top?  Our analytics technology allows clients to analyze audience and traffic in real-time, enabling them to make intelligent business decisions on the spot.  It just doesn’t get any better.

Unicorn Media will be providing our live streaming technology for some great events coming up, so stay tuned for that announcement!

(OK, I’m done.  You can go back to the pups.)

Last week, Unicorn Media put into production our REST API, which will allow clients and partners to utilize Unicorn Media services independently of each other.

What does that mean for new and current customers?

Well, we’ve been talking a lot lately about why Unicorn Media was founded: because we saw a void in the OVP market that made it difficult for media publishers to seamlessly manage, syndicate, analyze, and monetize their video content.  Our goal has always been to create a type of one-stop shop that allows organizations (of all sizes) to simply and effectively accomplish all of their objectives with one product in one place.  But we also realize that one size doesn’t always fit all…

We see the Media-as-a-Service™ solution as the best solution to create an effective online video ecosystem, and while we stand by this philosophy, we also understand that the needs of organizations are as unique as the companies themselves.  With our new REST API, these organizations can now utilize the Unicorn Media services that most effectively help run their business.

Is it a killer analytics system you’re looking for?  We’ve got it.  Looking for an easy way to syndicate your content?  Look no further.  Or maybe you just need a great player for your website.  We’ve got that too.

Whatever your needs, whether its all of the benefits of our Media-as-a-Service™ solution or just one component to augment your existing workflow, Unicorn Media will help provide the right solution for you.

Unicorn Media's Analytics System, including a view of the infamous "Magic Frisbee."

So you’ve syndicated your content out. (That was easy, right?)

Now for the important stuff: Who’s watching it? Sounds simple enough, but we’ve found that the answer can be a surprisingly difficult one to answer.

Analyzing video content on the Interwebz has traditionally been a complicated endeavor.  Content publishers often need two or even three vendors to derive answers to pretty simple questions about their content.  They’re left with high costs, hefty bandwidth logs, and a limited perspective into how the content they’re analyzing is actually performing.

We saw this as a huge void in the video ecosystem, so naturally, it became a huge focus in developing Unicorn Media’s Media-as-a-Service™ solution.

Our analytics system isn’t a traditional reporting system.  It’s a real-time data warehouse and provides unfettered access to key data points, allowing content owners and publishers to view metrics by video reach, content, consumption, domain, or geography.

So what does that mean to content publishers? It means that UMedia Analytics provides unmatched visibility into how your business is actually working…in real-time.  How much revenue did that video generate?  How many end-users watched that piece of content?  Where in the world is this video the most popular?  Is this particular title profitable?  Whether you want to compare end-user behavior to content performance, or revenue generation to delivery cost, the Unicorn Media solution allows you to create custom reports on-the-fly.

In other words, we’ve created an analytics system that just doesn’t exist anywhere else.